RATBOYS ARE THE GENTLE POET LAUREATES OF THE COLLEGE DORM

Julia Steiner wrote some of her first songs in high school. The 25-year-old singer and guitarist of Chicago band Ratboys worked "in seclusion" then and started to spin childhood memories into melodic narratives. A few years later, Steiner had channeled a near-train derailment involving her brother Paul into a song called "Control," driven by gentle, instantly hummable melodies.
"Control," one of the best songs on the band's new album, GN (like how you'd text the words "good night"), tells that story in five minutes amid busy drums and country guitar licks courtesy of the band's other half, Dave Sagan, also 25. The two met in college in 2010. Across GN, his noisy guitar casts gorgeous shadows on Steiner's earnest examinations of self and purpose. Sometimes they're explored through the lens of historical figures — the icy thud of "Crying About the Planets" recounts a harrowing Attract journey taken by British explorers in 1910 — and other times they're sheer biography.

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